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Are station lifts operable overnight?

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dmncf

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At stations that are not locked overnight (e.g. stations that are unstaffed or staffed only part time), are lifts operable overnight?

I wondered if lifts are deactivated overnight to reduce the risk of antisocial behaviour (but allowing someone who's already inside a lift to exit it).

I particularly thought of DLR stations such as Langdon Park, where the lifts are at the station entrances and hence very visible and accessible from outside the station.
 
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ValleyLines142

ValleyLines142

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Quite a lot of people use the lifts/footbridge at Langdon Park as a thoroughfare, its a station I use often, so I'm not sure how this would go down if the lifts were only accessible during DLR service hours.
 
K

Krokodil

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I can think of at least one station where the lift is supposedly locked OOU out of hours. Never seen it actually locked unless it has a fault.
 
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To the trains

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Some stations don't keep the lift open all times train run (Alfreton's lifts are only open between 6am and 6:30pm, and only open from 10am on a Sunday) in a bid to prevent them being on the receiving end of antisocial behaviour. Can't say what is broadly true in general, really, must be decided on a station by station basis
 
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800001

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To the trains said:
Some stations don't keep the lift open all times train run (Alfreton's lifts are only open between 6am and 6:30pm, and only open from 10am on a Sunday) in a bid to prevent them being on the receiving end of antisocial behaviour. Can't say what is broadly true in general, really, must be decided on a station by station basis
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Not very helpful for people with accessibility requirements who require the use of a lift outside of those times.
 
DarloRich

DarloRich

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dmncf said:
At stations that are not locked overnight (e.g. stations that are unstaffed or staffed only part time), are lifts operable overnight?
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the unhelpful answer will be: it depends!

( I don't think there are any "hard and fast" rules)
 
styles

styles

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As someone who has slept at a few railway stations overnight where lifts have been present, I've never found them locked/switched off. Not to say it doesn't happen, but my anecdotal experience is that at least some of them remain operable.
 
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To the trains

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800001 said:
Not very helpful for people with accessibility requirements who require the use of a lift outside of those times.
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Not at all! I suppose the counter argument is "if we kept the lift open then some ne'er-do-well will take it out of action for a week" not that I find that a great reason
 
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Ballyheigue

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I think Kirkstall Forge station is on a through route for access to the nearby canal, not that anyone at midnight would want to go that way but I suppose they have to keep the lifts open for those who do.
 
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Bodiam

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When the accessible footbridge at Staplehurst was installed about 2008, it was suggested that because of the risk of antisocial behaviour it might be necessary to turn the lifts off when the station wasn't staffed, and that anyone wanting to use the lifts during this time would need to contact SouthEastern control and have them turn the lifts on remotely. As far as I'm aware the lifts have always been available in practice.
 
46026

46026

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At Totnes the lift is locked when the station is unstaffed. There is an intercom you can press to a call centre somewhere who will then remotely call the lift for you to access, i have done this several times and had no problems.
 
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zwk500

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To the trains said:
Not at all! I suppose the counter argument is "if we kept the lift open then some ne'er-do-well will take it out of action for a week" not that I find that a great reason
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I suspect the counter-argument is normally 'Well last time we kept the lift open some ne'er-do-well did take it out of action for nearly a month.'

The railway can only do so-much to tackle anti-social behaviour on it's own, as it's usually part of a much wider set of factors. Where it is present, stations are trapped between a rock and a hard place between provision of a service, risk to the facilities, and the cost of security/repair.
 
D

dmncf

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46026 said:
Just took a photo of the sign at Totnes
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Thanks for the photo and info. I wasn't aware of examples where users can request the list out of hours using an intercom. That's really interesting.
 
Crossover

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Dewsbury's lifts were locked out of use when the ticket office was closed (thus anyone needing to travel from Huddersfield/to Leeds had to double back, probably via Leeds, if they needed step-free access.) Not sure if this has changed since the significant TRU works over the last few weeks
 
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